Why you shouldn’t propose with Google Glass

If you must record touching landmark moments, Glass isn't the best choice.

Just before Valentine's Day, Google released a short video of several Google Glass Explorers' marriage proposal experiences, all recorded by their futuristic glasses. The video falls just short of a commercial, clearly going for the heartstrings that Apple always attempts to tug at with its iPhone and iPad spots. But Google Glass as a product in the video falls completely flat, because it adds nothing—which plays exactly to the weakness of Google Glass.

As life experiences go, a proposal is not something anyone would like to be muddled by a camera. Google Glass (mostly) removes the camera from the situation, or so seems the thesis of this video. "OK Glass," whispers the woman in the first couple as her soon-to-be-fiancé begins his proposal speech. Soon they are recording each other—his spiel, her reaction, all caught on Glass.

But if you're the type who records life moments, a proposal is bound to be high on that list. In that scenario, using Google Glass over a camera or smartphone isn't going to change anything. We don't necessarily need a camera to stand out of the way, and the cost of that hampers the capture of an event like this in significant ways.

The end effect of a Glass perspective is weird: you see faces, but from the odd, direct angles of a conversation partner. The actual proposal gesture—the bending of knee, the ring—is missed entirely. After all, it's not where anyone actually invested in the proposal happening is looking. In one of the vignettes, the man in one couple fumbles with a pen that seems to conceal the ring, but it happens out of frame. The kisses sealing the deal, which are a romantic event when filmed by a third party, become weird and extreme close-ups of each partners' face when filmed by Glass.

Google isn't first to this concept. Back in June when Glass first started circulating, an enterprising man in want of a wife captured his own proposal, or really his fiancee's reaction, with his Glass. It's a video keepsake that looks similar to the commercials.

Google Glass has made big strides showing it's useful for professionals, and it's even seeing adoption there. But when it comes to capturing this specific human emotion and sentiment, it's not making a compelling case.